


To Reach the Surface

by midnight_reverie



Series: AUs [1]
Category: Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart+
Genre: F/M, Little Mermaid, fem!yukiya, genderbent!yukiya, mermaid, mermaid!au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-22 13:03:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6080430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnight_reverie/pseuds/midnight_reverie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elisabeth Heart is a mermaid who, unlike her fellow brethren, is fascinated with the idea of humans, a rather odd species that uses twigs to channel their magic. When she encounters one on a swim, the happy-to-go, slightly eccentric Serge Durandal whose hair reminds her of the candyfloss depicted in her novels, she can’t help but slowly fall in love. But there’s no way Serge could ever love a mermaid, and the price for legs is a heavy one, laced with poison and pain.</p><p>If only fairy-tale endings were easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. With A Side Of Emotional Turmoil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bottled-jellyfish](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=bottled-jellyfish).



> So, the scene in the beginning of this chapter may be a bit heavy and a bit OOC (since canonically MC has gotten over the death of her parents), but my MC does differ a bit from canon!MC. After all, there is a species difference. ;) But, depending on what route I want to take this story on, the scene will matter in the grand scheme of things.
> 
> Also, Elisabeth L. Heart is MC and she and Serge are ages 17 and 19, respectively (Amelia is a little bit older than MC, but only by a few months or so). 
> 
> All characters belong to NTT Solmare! :D

Ding! 

Elisabeth dropped her romance novel and rushed to the oven, slipping on her oversized kitchen mitts and securing the knot on her apron. She stuck her hand through the protective bubble that surrounded the stone-sunk oven*. Her fingers danced lightly over the delectables, magic sparking up from their tips and spreading into bubbles that wrapped around the trays to protect them from the surrounding water. Bubbles issued from the oven as its larger protective bubble was broken. She batted them away impatiently, causing them to pop and bask the small, but cozy, kitchen with a warm, buttery aroma. 

After sliding the next two batches (pecan pralines and coconut crispies) in the oven and setting her two timers to 40 and 30 minutes, respectively, she swam into the sitting room, proudly bearing her creations. 

“Raspberry almond kisses and double trouble chocolate cookies,” she announced to the lounging figure on her overstuffed couch. The other girl hurried to clear away some magazines on the coffee table to make room for the sweets, which were set down shortly after. She reached for two cookies and stuffed them greedily into her mouth. “So?” Elisabeth demanded as her friend continued to chew, though more thoughtfully this time. “What do you think?”

She held up a hand, signaling her to be patient. Elisabeth fell back into the couch and groaned loudly, but complied nonetheless. Once she had taken a million years to finish swallowing, she finally spoke. “Amazing!” enthused Amelia Nile, flashing her friend a thumbs up. “What do you put in there?”

“You’re just saying that because you want to know the secret ingredient,” grumbled Elisabeth, crossing her arms, but a smile was fighting itself way onto her lips. “Anyways, try the raspberry almond kisses!” She grabbed one off the other tray and offered it to Amelia.

“Fantabulous,” declared Amelia through a mouthful. “Can I have another one?” she asked, already reaching for the tray.

“Oka - oh, you’re already eating it.” Elisabeth rolled her eyes playfully. “Why even bother asking?” she wondered, mostly to herself.

“It’s just a pretense.” Amelia shrugged. “I want to keep up my facade of being a nice person, but inside, I’m really just a greedy incubus who thirsts for your cookies and will steal dozens of batches to sate my seemingly endless hunger.” She flashed a cheeky grin. 

“Ah,” said Elizabeth as Amelia took several more kisses. “Well, you can take as many as you want,” she continued. “I still have some more in the oven and there’s no way I can finish all four batches.”

Amelia’s eyes lit up like a school of fire fish.* “Oh, really?” she exclaimed as she began gathering handfuls of sweets in her arms with a speed that could rival that of an eel from the Blackened Kelp Forest*. “I love you so much! You’re amazing!” 

Elizabeth sighed. Some people never changed. “I’ll get you a bag for that,” she said, floating to her chest of drawers and producing from them a seaweed-threaded bag. 

Amelia grinned and reached for the bag, eagerly filling it up. “You’ve been upgraded to awesome!” she cheered. “Talk about delish. My siblings will be soo jelly.”

Elisabeth narrowed her eyes. “You better share with them,” she threatened. “I don’t want anybody knocking on my door, complaining about how a certain auburn-haired girl won’t share.”

Amelia laughed as she tied up the bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Of course I’ll share,” she assured her friend. “Jeez, I don’t need two moms!” she added, chuckling. Seeing Elisabeth’s stricken expression, she quickly backtracked. “Er...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that,” she added in an attempt at rectifying her mistake. 

“No, no, it’s fine.” Elisabeth waved her hand dismissively, although Amelia noted with worry that her voice held a slight tremor and that her eyes were a bit misty.

“Are you sure -- “ 

“I am one hundred percent positive,” she responded firmly, her voice holding no room for protest. “I think you should go now, no?” she added, forcibly dragging Amelia by the arm. “Your family must be very, very worried.”

Amelia thrashed her tail in an attempt to stay put. “Elisabeth,” she started, “are you absolutely, positively sure that you are -- “

“Yes!” she almost shouted. She paused and lowered her voice. “I mean...no, really I’m fine.” They had reached the entrance; Elisabeth practically shoved Amelia through the door. “I just have work to do. Can’t be dilly-dallying when there are weeds to pull and fruit to harvest!” Elizabeth smiled, but it looked more like a pained grimace.

Amelia lingered by the threshold, unconvinced. “I can help you -- “

“No thank you bye and have a nice day.” With one last fleeting smile, Elisabeth slammed the door, leaving a shell shocked Amelia to stare blankly into space.

Elisabeth would come around. Maybe the subject was touchy, but she wasn’t fragile. Amelia herself had spent hours upon hours comforting the small girl, whose tears seemed to be never-ending, but those times were buried under years and years of growth. 

Elisabeth was strong. She had to be. Right?

Amelia shook her head and swam off, clutching her bag of cookies tightly in her hand, and tried to banish all thoughts of torment from her mind. 

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  
page-break funded by Elias' fanclub  
//////////////////////////////////

Elisabeth pumped her limbs furiously, her tail occasionally joining in on the effort to propel her forward with a particularly strong flick or two. The exercise was methodic to her and bore a soothing quality of familiarity. The focus that was required of the activity helped empty her mind, which was precisely the point, as she really didn’t want to think at the moment. She allowed herself to be immersed into the movements of swish and flick, her mind to be emptied of any unwanted thoughts and to only concentrate at the task at hand -- to get to the surface of the lake.

Ordinarily, mermaids tended to avoid swimming anywhere to the surface, even when it was covered with a layer of snow in the winter like now. It was believed that humans, a strange folk that used sticks to channel their magic, had cast them into the saltwater depths of the lake because they were jealous of the merfolks’ awe-inspiring magical ability. The marine life had taken pity on them and given them tails and fins to breathe with, but although that had certainly prevented them from dying, it had done nothing to quell their rage towards humans. Elisabeth didn’t really care -- in fact, all her novels had led her to believe that humans were fascinating creatures - so unlike her counterparts, she had no qualms against swimming near the surface when it was iced over. She rather liked it there, when the sunlight bleed through the ice and let beams of bluish light dance in the water. It gave her a strange thrill, to know that no other merfolk had been there except her, that every stroke she made was hers and hers alone. 

Pausing for a moment to take a small break, she looked up. Her breath hitched in her throat. She could see hazy light from what seemed like miles away, but light nonetheless. A thrill of excitement shot through her veins and she grinned. 

Filled with newfound determination, she began to swim furiously. Slowly, but faster than she had anticipated, the light expanded and became brighter as she neared. She had gotten to the point where she had to squint; it had been a long time since she’d been to the surface, and clearly her vision was not adjusted to such circumstances. 

The ice, in other words, was blinding to the eyes. She tried to touch it but only succeeded in grazing its surface (slick and cool to the touch) before her arm fell limply to the side as if tied to a weight. She must’ve exerted herself too much, which certainly explained why all her muscles felt like they were lead. It also explained the soreness. When she tried to move her tail, it didn’t respond to her mind, as if it was rebelling against the will to walk. 

She let her limbs sag and her muscles grow slack. She was way too tired to even bother trying to stay afloat. The water was so dense with salt she doubted that it wouldn't have mattered whether she was making a conscious effort enough. She closed her eyes, allowing fatigue to take her to the land of dreams. 

A sharp splintering crack echoed sharply in her ears. She warily opened one eye...and froze.

Peeking out from a jagged hole in the ice was a pair of large eyes that looked undeniably human.


	2. Bubblegum Pink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Elisabeth meets an odd human by the name of Serge-Randy Durandal-slash-question mark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for my lateness. Just wanted to shout out that the next chapter probably won't be coming out on time, because I have a musical evaluation coming up in two weeks and most of my time will be invested into that, but after that is break so I'll definitely have more chapters up by then, if not sooner!

  _Peeking out from a jagged hole in the ice was a pair of large eyes that looked undeniably human._

She screamed and made to swim away, but found that she couldn't move. A hand had wrapped around the base of her tail, cold and unfamiliar. Their fingers pressed uncomfortably into the sensitive part of her tail, making her grit her teeth in pain. She screamed again, a current of bubbles issuing from her mouth and clouding her vision, and thrashed her tail wildly, but their grip did not relent.

"She's not even pretty," complained a male voice. In response, she splashed water into his face. "Urgh!" he cried. "Fucking hold still, you little..!" mumbled the human. He tightened his grip. She winced. "Randy! A little help here?"

Crunching footsteps. "'Kay, Azusa." This voice was different, a bit higher and strangely pleasant, but still definitively masculine. She heard a sigh. "Azusa," said the other man -- Randy? Probably. "You aren't doing it right." Her tail was released and she made to swim away -- finally -- but no sooner had she been relieved of the human's slimy hands did she feel another's grip holding her fast and firm.

This one was different, though, somehow. Despite being strong enough to contain her, this grip was surprisingly loose and caused her no pain, unlike Azusa's. The human's hands, although rough with calluses, caressed her gently and felt soft against her slimy scales. She felt relaxed and sagged in his hands.

"See?" said Randy. "This is how you do it. Your grip was all wrong." His tone didn't sound condescending -- just like somebody cheerfully stating a fact.

Azusa grumbled. "Whatever. This is a waste of my time. I'm going back to the dorms. You should, too." His footsteps receded into the distance.

"Azusa is a bit of a damper," said Randy matter-of-factly, "but you get used to him. He's actually a big softie under that gritty exterior." He paused. “I hope he didn't injure your tail too much," he continued. "It doesn't seem like he did, so that's good." He let go of her tail and began to stroke it like one might a dog – or was it a cat? It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable but she still couldn’t help but feel a bit miffed. What was she, a pet?

She took this chance to flip her tail back into the water. However, instead of swimming away as fast as she could like her instincts were screaming at her to do, she turned around and gripped the pieces of jagged ice that lined the hole, using them to hoist herself out of the water.

The first thing she noticed about being out on actual human terrain -- well, as close as she could get, anyways -- was the way the wind blew against her face, stinging her salt-water streaked cheeks painfully yet pleasurably. It gently brushed her forearms, making little bumps pop up on her skin. Goosebumps, she remembered from the pages of a waxed novel.* She grinned. She never thought she would have goose bumps.

She tilted her head back, tossing her wet hair back. The sky was magnificent, a vibrant blue expanse dotted with little white wisps. Staring at it was mesmerising and dizzying at the same time. Her version whirled and the sky tilted dangerously. She lowered her head. 

The second thing she noticed was Randy.

His hair was bubblegum pink, which was a hair color that could only be achieved by dyeing, a process that she didn't quite understand but sounded unnecessary unless it was for espionage. His hair was rumpled and stuck out in some places, especially in the back, which struck Elisabeth as odd until she realized that his hair was probably different because he was human. His eyes, large and innocent, were a light almond tinged with dark brown. They were widened innocuously and his lips were parted ever so slightly. It wasn't a dramatic jawdrop that her human characters were famous for, but that was okay. After all, she couldn't see it all in one go.

In short, he wasn't that bad of a specimen. He was actually quite attractive. There were probably better out there, but at least he wasn't the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Actually, it would've been cool to meet something akin to the hunchback. Or the elephant man. Or Golem. Or --

Okay, so maybe he was a bit of a disappointment. But hey, he seemed nice and relatively sane, and, more importantly, he had pink hair.

_Pink hair._

She’d never read about anybody with pink hair. Even dyed.

She could get behind that.

"What's your name?" he asked. It was different hearing his voice from outside the water -- then again, everything was different outside water so far. His voice was sweet and chirpy but it still had a rough, masculine edge to it.

"Elisabeth Heart," she said promptly. "Do you dye your hair?”

He stared at her for a few seconds, head tilted in confusion, and then laughed. It had a deep baritone sound to it and it was raw and sharp, nothing like the way mermaids laughed, gurgled, disoriented guffaws. Elisabeth half-expected bubbles to stream from his lips, but to her surprise, nothing happened. She remembered belatedly that they were above water. "No, actually," he said. He had calmed down but his eyes still twinkled with mirth. "I get that a lot, though," he added. "Especially from mermaids who don't know my name," he added; he laughed quietly to himself, as if there was some kind of inside joke only he knew.

"I already know your name," she stated confidently. "It's Randy March."

He looked surprised for a moment, then a bit miffed, although the two expressions were so fleeting Elisabeth could've easily attributed it to her own imagination. "I'm actually not Randy March," he explained to her. "I'm Serge Durandal."

Wait...Serge? "But that Azusa person called you Randy!" she argued. "So it must be Randy." She grinned, realizing something. "You're just trying to trick me," she told him, wagging a finger at him. "You don't want me to know your name because I'm a stranger!"

Randy -- Serge? -- looked as if he was deciding on whether to be bemused, defensive, or offended. "Well, my name is Serge," he responded. "So ha," he added, for good measure.

"Well, then why does Azusa-person call you Randy?" she challenged.

A flicker of something unidentifiable flickered across his face. "Because...he does!" he said defensively.

Elisabeth arched a skeptical brow. "Uh-huh. He calls you Randy because he does, not because it's your name, obviously," she retorted, feeling a rush of confidence at the pure amount of snark in her words. It felt good to be sassy to somebody, even if was some strange Randy-Serge character who was human.

Serge/Randy held up his hands."Look, it's really complicated," he explained. "Like, reeeally complicated. I'd rather not explain it now." The sigh that shortly followed was one of exasperation, but his words held a discreet undertone of warning. "Just...call me Serge. Or heck, call me Randy if you want."

She regarded him with a scrutinizing eye. He seemed innocent enough and he didn’t want to eat her, which was a plus. She was also _really_ curious about him – he was _human,_ after all. "Okay, then, Serge fellow," she said. And, because she was feeling quite bold and her arms were tingly with anticipation, “Tell me about yourself.”

He grinned toothily.

* * *

_This page-break was written hastily across Headmaster Randolph's list of ships -- er, Buddies_

* * *

 

"So, was he cute?" Amelia asked the next day after Elisabeth had spilled the whole story over cookies and tea.

Her first meeting with a human had gone pretty well, considering the possibly incriminating circumstances. Aside from their brief and awkward introduction, they chattered easily and, at least in Elisabeth's opinion, they found each other both very interesting. Serge, she found out, was a magic scientist who was currently enrolled in Gedonelune Academy, a prestigious school for precocious wizards and wizardesses. From her understanding, he was strange even among humans, which she couldn't say for herself. How he found her case fascinating enough to merit another meeting the very next day was beyond her, but she was far from complaining. He was nice, different, interesting, and he wanted to see her again.

She threw up her hands. "That's your question?" she cried. "'So, was he cute?" Really? _Really?”_ She hadn’t been expecting it, but now that she thought about it she really shouldn’t have expected any better. This was Amelia, after all.

Amelia shrugged, clearly shameless. "It was worth asking," she said simply. She leaned forward and grinned wickedly. "So, was he?" she whispered.

She pondered this. Now that she thought about it, he was actually pretty attractive, with his delicate, fae-like features and wide doe eyes. "He had pink hair," she said.

Amelia rolled her eyes. "Oh, you know humans with their odd quirks." She dismissed this with a wave of her hand. "What I want to know is how hot he is."

Elisabeth blushed, studiously ignoring how Amelia snickered at this show of bashfulness. "H-He was okay," she managed.

"Aw, Lizzie Bee!" cooed Amelia. Elisabeth bristled at the dreaded nickname. "So cute and innocent! I knew he was hot!" she added triumphantly.

If it was possible, Elisabeth would've thought her cheeks were on fire. "Can we talk about something else?" she interjected pointedly.

She pouted. "But I like talking about this human fellow!" she complained. "He's interesting compared to the other -- pardon my puns – _fish_ in the sea." She dropped an obvious wink.

"First of all, no," deadpanned Elisabeth. "Also, I'm going to meet him again today pretty soon, so we can talk about him then," she added, swimming to the threshold.

"You better tell me everything when you get back, Elisabeth Heart!" warned Amelia, shaking her fist in mock-anger. “ _Everything!”_

Elisabeth chuckled and gently closed the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are welcome! :) 
> 
> *Waxed Novel -- Elisabeth restores and waxes novels she finds in shipwrecks and such. The reason she doesn't use magic is because it would be harder and would require one to exert more magical energy to do a permanent spell (permanent spells such as permanent waterproofing) so magically waxing a book is a onetime easy solution.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed reading this, please leave a kudo! If you didn't...well, don't! Comments are highly appreciated. :-) 
> 
> *Blackened Kelp Forest - A kelp forest that was once prosperous but was burned with holy fire awhile ago. It is now considered haunted. The tales say that wicked sirens dwell within, waiting to seduce young mermaids with temptations beyond their wildest dreams.
> 
> **stone-sunk oven - A large rock sunk into the sand with an opening to put food and another smaller opening at the base to kindle a fire
> 
> ***bubble spell - Used to handle things that otherwise couldn't be handled underwater, i.e. fireplaces, ovens, certain foods, etc.


End file.
